Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I am going to keep this short as my contacts messed up my right eye again. It's swollen and I can barely see out of it. Sigh.

So between yesterday's con and today's author meet up at the book store I wanted to talk about interacting with your potential readers. Of course there are no hard and fast rules to this and the readers are individuals too. But let me compare yesterday's young man to today's young woman. He was enthusiastic. He sold the book far better than his blurb did. Today, she was entirely hands off letting me look at the blurbs. The only thing she said was that the book in my hand was book 2 in the series. Made zero attempts to sell her work.

The sweet spot is somewhere between these two most likely. Did I buy a book? Yes because I want my new book store to succeed (and in my heart of hearts I doubt it will) But if she had been at the con yesterday I would have walked on past. I'm not saying be a carnival barker but hoping for the blurb to do all the work when you are there might also not be your best bet. You seem...disinterested.

I've only done this once. I wasn't as interactive as I probably should have been and I definitely sold worse than my companions who were far more interactive with the potential readers. None of this is helped by the fact that some of us are deeply introverted and just being there is tough. I swing back and forth between extrovert and introvert so I need to find better ways because I want to be the author behind the table again.

If you'd done the in person book sales, what are your tips? your don't do this stories?


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Comments

[lucy_roman]

I hope your eye gets better soon. I've never been brave enough to try contact lenses.

I read the d2d article. Do you have a d2d account? Mine says I won't be charged so I'm keeping it for the moment.

[cornerofmadness]

my vision is so bad that contacts were a reprieve from the heaviness of my glasses (once the cataracts are big enough i'll have the corrections built into my fake lenses) and swimming with glasses is...yeah tonight's water aerobics is gonna suck.

But I've been mostly wearing glasses for the better part of the last 2 years except when I need the break (like tonight which I won't be able to do, my glasses will be trashed)

I do. I'm sure I'll be charged. I'd close it except so many anthologies use it to pay you. I hope that changes so I can ditch them

[lucy_roman]

I wouldn't be surprised if publishers of anthologies didn't find a different way to do the royalty share. When I had to sign up I think if I'd been told I had to pay $20 for the privilege I probably wouldn't have.